Why Wasps will target Murphy

Leicester's third-choice scrum-half is likely to be tested to the full by the opposition at Twickenham

IT IS accepted wisdom that modern-day players are more talented and therefore more interchangeable across the positions. However, there are two jerseys that can only be filled by out-and-out specialists. The hooker has to be a specialist on grounds of safety, because those uninitiated in the up-front arts are in danger. You also have to have a specialist scrum-half because there are so many options, decisions, angles and position-specific skills to master that the position would bewilder anybody simply passing through.

This is why, for all Leicester's power and confidence, they could have an Achilles heel today. Frank Murphy, the 25-year-old Munsterman and third-choice scrum-half, is the starter. And on the bench, nobody. Leicester do not have a fit scrum-half, in the absence of Harry Ellis and Scott Bemand. It is an alarming thought.

Last weekend in the Guinness Premiership, Murphy played magnificently against Glouces-ter, shrugging off with a nervous